Lately I’ve been dressing for revenge: Customer rage at boiling point
A survey shows that complaints about products and services are on the rise and frustrated customers are becoming more aggressive.
Customer trust is earned, and not through passive means. For brands, building customer trust promises to be a holy grail of long-term revenue and loyalty. But consumer skepticism and the abundance of options make it feel elusive.
What is customer trust, really? And how do you go about building it?
At its core, customer trust is no different from the trust you put in your personal relationships, your employer, or your go-to news publication. Building customer trust is like any trust, you earn it and you have to work to protect it.
What is customer trust: Definition
Customer trust is the belief or faith that a customer has in a business with regard to doing what they say they’ll do and living up to their commitments. A simplified definition of customer trust is that customers believe a company will do right by them – or won’t.
Building customer trust is walking the walk, talking the talk, and respecting that people are paying attention.
Two tenets of customer trust are crucial to understanding its role in relationships, business or otherwise:
- Customer trust, like any trust, is earned. It’s not given, and it can’t be faked. It’s earned over time, through every interaction a customer has with your business, from small (e.g. Do I immediately regret giving you my email address?), to large (e.g. How did your company handle a critical data breach?). Every point of contact is a chance for building trust upon a strong foundation in the relationship, or chipping away at it.
- Customer trust can be broken. And it’s a lot harder to rebuild broken trust than it is to build it from scratch. Now, this doesn’t mean that you’ll never make mistakes. Some mistakes can be forgiven once trust is established, depending on what a company does in the wake of the mistake.
Why customer trust matters in business
A business needs customer trust to succeed, plain and simple. Customer trust drives loyalty, which is vital to sales, repeat purchasing, and a brand’s reputation.
Loyal customers are more likely to stick with a brand over time, which fosters the rich relationships that fuel long-term success. They’re also more likely to recommend a brand to others either by word of mouth or online reviews, which drives growth.
Having and keeping customers’ trust has only become more important as commerce becomes increasingly digital. Consider all the options consumers have today for buying products and educating themselves before making a purchase.
According to Gartner, 83% of consumers won’t do business with a brand they don’t trust.
And with the proliferation of social media, it’s so easy to express displeasure if a customer feels a brand has failed to live up to its promises, thereby breaking trust.
Poor reviews quickly damage a company’s reputation, which is intrinsically linked to business value. In a survey of global executives, 63% attributed their company’s market value to their reputation.
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The stakes are high on both sides
Between technological advances like machine learning and artificial intelligence, and the proliferation of customer data, consumers today are putting more on the line than money: They’re sharing their personal data. What’s at stake – quite literally – are their identities.
In our increasingly data-driven world, that could have serious and far-reaching implications.
Customers are willing to share their data in exchange for better, more personalized customer experiences, and those experiences could translate to sales success. But they will stop doing business with you entirely if you misuse or share that data without their consent.
In short: to compete, you need to deliver outstanding experiences. To do that, you need valuable customer data. And to get that, customers need to trust you.
How to build customer trust: six way to earn it
Of course, businesses can proactively work on building (or rebuilding) customer trust and being trustworthy.
Here are six essential tips for brands on how to build customer trust:
- Customer service is the front line when it comes to customer trust. There was a time when customer service and customer experience were separate. That’s no longer the case – service is now an integral part of the CX, and everyone in your org is responsible for it. This is where collaboration across the company becomes critical, and CRM customer service software can assist in making collaboration simplified in real-time.
- Be honest and forthcoming with anything that impacts them. Transparency is huge when it comes to building customer trust. And consumers today are extremely well-versed in what solutions exist to protect them. Let them know what you’re doing, what protections you’ve put in place to prevent their data from being compromised.
- Respect their privacy and boundaries. Give customers control over how their data is collected, used, and shared. Make it easy for them to opt-in and opt-out at will (ideally, from a single spot). And then honor those preferences.
- Address conflicts clearly and healthily. Building customer trust requires that when it’s broken we fess up and promise to do better. Mistakes happen. When they do, own them and address them head-on. Don’t make light of a situation where your customers’ data may have been at risk; don’t ignore it in hopes that it will blow over. Equip your service staff to handle any questions clearly and directly, so your customers feel heard.
- Walk the talk of customer trust. Trust is lost when your words and actions don’t match. The simplest solution? Authenticity and follow-through. If you say privacy is important to you, show it at every stage of the customer journey.
- Remember relationships are a give and take. You can’t expect people to hand over the most important assets they have and get nothing in exchange. It’s on you to show how they benefit from sharing their data. Invest in stellar customer service and personalized campaigns. Acknowledge loyalty and show your appreciation – whether with big gestures or just by showing up day in and day out. As you are building customer trust, don’t let your customers feel taken for granted.
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The future of business depends on trusted relationships
As business processes become increasingly automated, companies are even more reliant on customer trust and emotional intelligence.
Establishing and maintaining customer trust is a long game. You can make a quick buck by taking advantage of customer trust, but you won’t earn repeat business (and the fallout could destroy your reputation).
Chances are, if you’re reading an article like this, you’re more interested in the long-term benefits than a short-term gain.
To succeed long term, brands need to operate with empathy for their customers. That means not only getting to know them, but respecting them and nurturing the relationship. Because business is personal.
